First
rain in mieh w mieh is something of an extraordinary. Usually this happens
every year by the end of September, beginning of October (as it happened
this year, October 13). The wind starts to blow, clouds starts to gather in
the sky, and thunder roar amplifies in the mountains and valleys surrounding
Mieh w Mieh, giving a noise that would let you think of nature furies,
making you stay home and wait the first rain to start. Once that happens, a
remarkable smell of the first rain is every where in the air, and everybody
starts preparing to go to the fields and collect snails.

Black Clouds Shadowing Mieh w Mieh

Snails in
Nature.

This
is a habit that has been forwarded from generation to generation, from
grandfathers to grandchildren, and young generation enjoy eagerly going and
collecting snails in the fields. Everybody prepares what they want to wear next
morning, some old clothes and old shoes, prepare small bags, and go to sleep
early. A long wait until dawn, children merely sleeps at night, and even some
people take some lamps and go before even the first day light, in order to find
as much snails as possible before the sun rises. Some even goes to village
neighbouring Mieh w Mieh, especially to the south villages, where snails are
available in high amounts. When you go to the fields in the morning, you start
collecting snails, and many times you realize that some people already had
marched from that area, and sometime you meet people that it has been long time
that you did not see in the village.

Mieh w Mieh
Under Rain.

Mieh w Mieh
Under Rain.

Here the
thing to note is the feeling involved, and not the act itself. Whom of you that
ever experienced this act during their childhood in Mieh w Mieh would understand
the feeling, and while reading this article, they would go back by memories to
theses days, and would feel the happiness of those moments.

After
collecting the snails and coming back home, children start counting and every
child would tell his friends how many snails he collected.

The next day,
or the next weekend, almost all the village is cooking snails, and many
relatives and friends gather for this occasion, eat Lebanese meze, tabbouleh,
homos, baba ghannouj, warak arich, etc and drink Arak with it (Lebanese strong
drink).

Let us hope these events continues, and the village’s customs holds to the
coming generations.